


The B-Word

by WinnietheShit



Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Bisexual Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-03
Updated: 2015-01-03
Packaged: 2018-03-05 03:10:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,281
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3103361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WinnietheShit/pseuds/WinnietheShit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The high school AU no one asked for!</p>
            </blockquote>





	The B-Word

**Author's Note:**

> based on this tumblr post  
> http://zombiescorp.tumblr.com/post/93089450709/same-kate-same-my-money-for-an-s2-arc-about

Kate is pretty sure Richie's brother doesn't like her. Which is totally weird, because who doesn't like her?  Not to say that she's Little Miss Popular, but she's Kate _Fuller_. She's nice.  She's open.  She's known for being nice and open.  Her daddy's a pastor.  She's been involved in every fundraiser, pep rally, and dance committee since freshman year. She knows the name of everyone in her grade and the grade above her.  She smiles at everyone who makes eye contact with her in the hall and they always smile back.

            Except for Seth, of course, who just nods.  She knows he's capable of smiling; he smiles all the time.  Just not at her.

            Richie likes her plenty, she can tell.  She kind of wishes he didn't like her as much as he did, to be honest.  So when Mr. Tanner announces they're going to be pairing up for their next history project, and passes around a bowl of little scraps of paper, Kate watches Richie carefully to make sure he doesn't pull the same number as her. He doesn't.

            Seth does.

            She smiles at him and holds up her own little scrap of paper when he reads his number out loud. He does that little squinty-eyed thing he always does and gives Richie a look as if to say, “Can you believe this?”

            Richie just frowns at his little scrap of paper before holding it up high over his head. The new girl saunters forward from the back of the room, holding up her own scrap of paper with the matching number. Kate tries to remember her name but for some reason can only come up with an S.    She's so busy watching girl-whose-name-starts-with-S bat her pretty eyelashes and pout her pretty lips at Richie that by the time she pulls out of it – _come on, Kate, you're a pastor's daughter –_ Seth is already standing at her side.

            “Hi!” She smiles again.

            He blinks at her, real slow. “Hi.”  Why does he always sound like he's making fun of her?

            “We should, um,” she holds her number up, “we should go check the list to see what the topic for our project is.”

            “I already checked. We're doing the conquistadors.”

            “Oh.  Well, did you get the assignment sheet?”

            Seth lets out a long-suffering sigh.  She thinks if his eyes rolled up any higher they might not come back down.  She grabs his arm and drags him to the front of the room where Mr. Tanner's handing out the papers specific to each group's assignment.

            “Well, hello there, Katie darlin'.  All fired up for your project?” says Mr. Tanner, grinning that weird grin of his.

            Her smile is pinched. She nods.

            “I see you have Mr. Gecko for your partner,” he continues.  Some of the warmth drops from his tone.  “That's... good.  That's good. Now I don't wanna hear about you slackin' off, Seth.  You treat this girl right, you hear?”  He trails off into a chuckle and Seth flashes him a humorless smile.

            “Could we have the assignment, please, Mr. Tanner?” Kate asks, butting in before he can continue with any more of his usual Tannerisms.

            “You just let me know if he gives you any trouble, Katie darlin'.”

            “Sure thing, Mr. Tanner,” she replies, smiling at him over her shoulder while she pulls Seth behind her to the back corner of the room.

            “Is he a creep, or what?” Seth snorts, dropping into a chair.

            “I'm sure he means well,” Kate says, pulling her notes out of her bag and spreading them over the desk. “Some people just, you know, interact with others differently.”

            “Believe me, princess, there's a difference between being socially awkward and actively being a creep.”

            Kate purses her lips and uncaps her pen, scrawling her and Seth's names across the top of a fresh sheet of binder paper.

            “Sure as hell doesn't talk to the other teachers like that.”

            “Where do you wanna start?” Kate interjects.

            “Never heard him talk to the boys like that,” Seth continues, ignoring her attempts at productivity.

            “He's just being friendly, alright?” she snaps.

            Seth snorts again and props his feet up on the desk.  “Ok, princess, whatever you say.”

            Kate takes a deep breath. “What days are you free?”

            “What?”

            “To work on the project. We won't have time to do it all in class, so I figure we could do some days at my house, some days at your house – ”

            “We can't do my house.”

            She starts to ask him why but he's looking at her with these eyes that clearly say not to push it. So she doesn't. “Okay,” she says, “we could go to the library, then, or if we have to spend more time at my house, I don't mind.”

            Beside her, he relaxes marginally.  “I'm free most days,” he says after a minute.

            Kate smiles and starts drawing up a schedule.  


  


* * *

 

Seth is, unsurprisingly, a total dead weight.  On the days they're scheduled to work together after school, he shows up late to hitch a ride with her, and once they're at her house or at the library he just fiddles with his pencil and watches her write stuff down. Sometimes, if they're at the library, she'll send him to fetch a book or two, and he can do that pretty well, but otherwise he completely slacks off.

            She only considers going to Mr. Tanner once, before she decides that 1) she's not a snitch, and 2) he is pretty creepy, even if she won't admit it to Seth.  She settles for just nagging at him instead. For the most part he takes it well, throwing sharp one-liners and quips at her like he was born to be scolded for not doing his homework, until one day she goes a little too far.

            She usually doesn't get too into their bickering, but today Seth's being a real pain in the ass. Not only did he not print out the pages she asked him too, he doesn't respond or even meet her eyes when she asks him questions.

            “What is your problem?” she snaps.  “I've been doing all the work on this stupid project from day one and you can't even print out a few stupid pages?”

            “I don't have a printer,” he sneers.

            “There's a printer in the school library,” she replies hotly.  “You have no excuse.”

            “I forgot, okay?”

            “You always _forget_!  Tattoo it on your – on your goddamned forehead if you know you're gonna _forget_!”

            “That's kind of the whole point of _forgetting_ , princess, is that you don't remember to do shit.”

            “Why did I have to be paired with such a deadbeat?” she mutters, marching over to her computer to print out the pages herself.

            “Fuckin' A,” he growls, stuffing random pencils and pieces of paper into his backpack. “If I'm such a fuckin' deadbeat, why don't you just do the goddamn project yourself, huh?”

            “I _have been_ ,” she replies, practically screaming at him.

            Her daddy chooses that moment to walk in the front door.  He shuts the door behind him carefully, surveying the scene with raised eyebrows: Kate standing by the printer, freshly printed pages gripped so tight in her hand they're starting to wrinkle, and Seth holding his backpack at the table, surrounded by haphazardly strewn pages of Kate's notes.

            “I'm not interrupting anything, am I?” he asks, mild-mannered as ever.

            Seth drops his backpack onto the chair.  “No, sir.” He looks like he wants to sprint past Kate's dad out the front door.

            “Katie-cakes, you wanna introduce me to this young gentleman?” her dad asks, striding forward to shake Seth's hand.

            “Daddy, this is Seth Gecko. He's my partner for a project in history,” she says through gritted teeth.

            “Pleasure to meet you, Seth. I'm Pastor Jacob Fuller.”

            “I know. I mean, I've heard – I mean – it's nice to meet you too, sir.”

            Kate steps forward and sets the papers down on the table.  “Daddy, we're just gonna try to get some work done before Seth has to go home.”

            Her dad raises his hands in surrender.  “Say no more. I'll stay out of your way.” He makes his way towards the kitchen. “Good to meet you, Seth.”

            “You too, sir.”

            Kate stares at Seth until he meets her eye.  She sighs. He does that squinty-eyed thing he always does before bowing his head and sitting again.  Kate follows suit.  She glances around the table.  “Where are my notes?”

            Seth shrugs before jumping a little in his seat and pulling them out of his backpack. He doesn't meet her eye when he sets them on the table, which is good, because otherwise he'd see her trying not to smile.

 

* * *

  


_Santanico_. Richie's partner is named Santanico. San- _tan_ -ico.  Seth watches Kate watching her across the cafeteria and has to snap his fingers in front of her face before she'll shift her focus back to him.  She doesn't like the look on his face, like he's figured something out about her.

            “What?”

            “Nothing,” says Seth, raising his eyebrows.  “I didn't say anything. Except, you know, you're not alone. The general consensus is she's pretty hot.”

            Kate scowls at him. “What are you trying to say?”

            “Nothing,” he says again. “You're right. Wouldn't do for a pastor's daughter to be eyeing up the new girl.”

            “I'm not _eyeing her up_ ,” she replies scathingly. “I'm just looking. I'm allowed to look at other people, aren't I?  Or would you rather I spend all my time looking at you, you egomaniac?”

            “Who's an egomaniac?” Richie says, dropping onto the bench beside her.  Kate flinches.  Richie looks over the notes and worksheets spread out across the lunch table. “Say, you're not getting my brother to do some schoolwork for once in his life, are you?” Richie says, smiling at her in that good-old-farmboy way he has.

            “Ha ha, piss off, Richie,” Seth replies, trying and failing to pull one of the worksheets out of Richie's hands.

            “Oh, seems I was mistaken. They're all in your handwriting, Kate.”

            She laughs lightly and shrugs. “Well, he's not totally hopeless. He good for getting me coffee and books and things.”

            Seth throws a french fry from her own plate at her.  He's been swiping them from her plate pretty regularly for the past half hour, probably thinking Kate hasn't noticed when really she has but just didn't say anything because, while Seth doesn't usually sit with her at lunch unless she makes him, she's noticed he usually goes lunchless.

            Richie's frowning at her carefully handwritten list of books and essays to read for their project. “Hey, you should go check out Mr. Tanner's library for some of these.  I've seen at least two of these titles on his shelves.”

            “I'll do it,” Seth says. At Richie's raised eyebrow, he continues, “What kind of a book fetcher would I be if I can't even get some of these, huh?”

            “No, it's fine, I've got it,” Kate says, pulling the paper out of Richie's hands and looking over the list herself.  “I've got some time after class anyway.”

            She and Richie both look up to watch Santanico pass by the table.  Richie claps his brother on the shoulder before getting up to follow her. Kate watches them go until Seth's voice pulls her back down. 

            “Are we still on for today?”

            Kate raises her eyebrows at him.  “Since when are you so eager to do homework?”

            He shrugs. “Since Richie won't be home 'til later and I hate being home alone with the old man.”

            She's learned by now not to ask too much about his dad.  Sometimes he responds with his usual wisecracks and other times he just shuts down completely.

            The bell rings before she can say anything.  Seth helps her pack up her stuff before he heads off to whatever class he has next. “Wait for me in the parking lot after school?” she asks, shouldering her bag.  “I'll just get the books from Tanner and we'll head over to my house.”

            He flashes her a thumbs up before disappearing.

            After sixth period, Kate knocks on the door to Mr. Tanner's classroom with her list clutched tight in her other hand.  Tanner opens the door looking pretty pissed off, to be frank, but he smiles as soon as he sees her. He opens the door all the way and steps aside to let her in.  “Katie, what can I do you for?”

            “Oh, I just need some books I think might help with the project,” she says, angling herself away from him as she slides into the room.  “Richie said you might have a few of them in your classroom.”

            Tanner shuts the door behind her.  “Richie.” He spends a few seconds looking pensive. “That Seth's brother?”

            “Yeah.”

            “How's Seth been treatin' you?”

            “Uh, he's been fine.” She holds out her list. “Anyway, do you have any of these books?”

            He waves at the bookshelves in the back of the room without looking at the paper.  “Go ahead and help yourself to any you find over there.”

            “Thanks.” She hurries to the back of the room and finds three of the titles on her list.  “This is great, Mr. Tanner, when do you want these – ” She turns around, books cradled in her arm, to find Tanner right behind her.  She clears her throat and takes a step away.  “When do you want these back?”

            “Oh, any time you're finished is fine with me.  That Seth's not giving you any trouble?”  He takes another step toward her.

            “No, he's fine. He's been doing his work,” she lies, backing away again.

            “That's a first.” He's effectively backed her into the corner now. 

            “Yeah, I guess I'm a good influence on him,” she says with a nervous laugh.  Stop her if she's wrong, but aren't teachers _not_ supposed to talk about a student's grades to another student?

            “Always knew you had it in you, Katie.  What a blessing it is you two got paired up.”

            “Right. Blessing.  Um, anyway – ”

            “Your project's coming along nicely then?” he asks, angling his head down toward her.

            “Yeah, we're doing great,” she replies, leaning away as surreptitiously as she can.

            “Remind me what yours was about.”  His breath smells like garlic.

            “The conquistadors.” She slides past him into the middle of the room.  “Thanks for the books, Mr. Tanner,” she says quickly, walking backwards until she reaches the door. It doesn't open on her first try. “Uh – ”  She looks to him helplessly.

            “Oh, silly me,” Tanner chuckles, coming up behind her.  “I must've accidentally locked it when you came in.”  He reaches past her to unlock it, his face coming uncomfortably close to hers.  She tries not to breathe in his garlicky breath again.  Kate practically runs into the hallway.

            “Thanks again, Mr. Tanner,” she calls over her shoulder, and speedwalks out into the parking lot.

            “You were absolutely right,” she snarls when she reaches her car.  Seth's leaning against the driver's side door and barely has time to scoot out of the way before she yanks the door open.  She tosses the books behind her into the backseat.  Seth watches her with raised eyebrows.

            “I usually am, but about what this time?” he asks, coming around to the passenger's side.

            “Tanner.” She starts the car and pulls out of the parking lot.

            Seth makes a face. “What?”

            “He's a creep. He's _deliberately_ creepy.  He knows exactly what he's doing and he's got it down to like, an exact formula or something because _boy_ , did he creep me out.” She tightens her grip on the steering wheel.  “He _locked the door_ when I went into his room. He _locked_ it.  Said it was an accident, but it definitely wasn't.  Hovering over me like some bloated, overgrown, hovery thing,” she mutters, turning rather more sharply than necessary onto her street.

            “Son of a bitch,” Seth says. “That son of a bitch. You oughta report him.”

            “Report him for what? Creepiness?  He didn't _do_ anything.”

            Seth lets out a low whistle. “You know, I heard the bastard's into some sick-o leather fetish stuff.”

            “I wouldn't be surprised,” Kate mutters, parking in front of her house.  She turns the car off and leans back in her seat with a sigh. “Pardon my language, but that _son_ of a _bitch_.”

            Seth laughs.

            They sit in the car for a few minutes, coming up with increasingly ridiculous hobbies that Tanner might have, until Scott bangs his hands against Kate's window and presses his face against the glass.

            “Gross! Do you know how dirty that thing is?” she yells.

            “Not as dirty as whatever stuff you plan on getting up to in your car.  Hey, Kate, the fifties called to say parking's out of date and you're a loser.” He cackles and runs into the house before Kate can chase after him.

            “Jerk.”

            “Well, I think he's funny.”

            She shoots Seth a Look. “You would.”

            He just shrugs and follows her into the house.  They don't end up using Tanner's books.

 

* * *

  


Kyle Winthrop throws a party the next weekend, on account of his parents are out of town.    Seth _really_ doesn’t want to go.  It’s so not his scene.

            “It’s so not my scene.”

            Kate parks a few houses down from Kyle’s house and turns to raise an eyebrow at Seth. “Then why did you even come?”

            He folds his arms and slouches in his chair, scowling at the dashboard.  “Richie’s going.”

            Kate has to blink at that. “Richie’s going? How come?”

            “Because his precious girlfriend is going.”

            Okay, so Kate gets a little flushed thinking about Santanico.  Sue her. “You could’ve just stayed at home, you know.  Would’ve saved me hearing you have to whine about it all night,” she says, hopping out of the car.

            Seth chuckles bitterly, slamming his own door shut behind him.  “Staying home was not an option, princess.”

            Kate cracks her neck and rolls her shoulders, licks her lips and runs her tongue across her teeth. She grins at Seth. “Any lip gloss on my teeth?”

            He barely glances at her. “Yeah, tons.”

            So, none.

            The door to the house is open; like, six people are hanging out on the porch and two of them are already drunk and two of them are making out on the porch swing.  The other two - goodness – one of them is throwing up into Mrs. Winthrop’s gardenias and the other one’s laughing their head off.

            “Yeah, home’s starting to look pretty good right about now,” Seth mutters, following Kate inside. She smacks his arm and tells him to get her a drink.  He looks at her like that’s the first logical thing she’s said all night.  “Preacher’s daughter drinking _alcoholic beverages_?  Now, what would dear old Daddy have to say about that, I wonder.”

            “Seth.”

            He throws his hands up in surrender.  “Alright, alright.”

            She rolls her eyes and tries to find someone she knows.

            Someone _besides_ Richie, who, quite inconveniently, is walking over to her right now.

            “Hey, glad to see you here, Kate! I didn’t know you were friends with Kyle.”

            “I could say the same to you,” she replies. “I brought Seth with me.”

            “None of your girlfriends wanted to come?”

            “Girlfriends?  I don’t – I’m not – ” She realizes a fraction of a second late what he meant.  “I mean, no. They all came with their boyfriends. In fact, I think I just saw Miriam heading upstairs with hers.”

            Richie turns to look when a pair of hands slither up over his shoulders and squeeze.  Santanico leans around Richie to pull his face down for a kiss.

            “Hi,” she says, extending a perfectly manicured hand to Kate.  “Kate, right?”

            “Y-yeah.  I’m – Kate is – that’s my name.”  So what if she laughs kind of like a maniac.  And so what if she can’t stop staring at Santanico’s mouth – it’s a really eye-catching color of lipstick, okay?  “Your – um – your lipstick’s really – it’s really – um.” Her mouth feels so dry.

            “Thanks.”  Santanico bats her eyes _real_ slow and her mouth unfurls into a predatory smile. Kate shifts her focus to Santanico’s hand sliding up and down Richie’s arm.  “I like your earrings.”

            “Oh.  Oh!” Kate feels another blush coming on. What is _wrong_ with her?  Santanico’s just a girl – it’s not like Kate’s – she’s not – this is ridiculous.

            Seth’s arrival spares her another fit of nervous laughter.  He shoves a plastic cup in her hand and engages in the customary small talk with Richie and Santanico before leading Kate away.  She lets him drag her to the backyard, looking over her shoulder the whole time, before wrenching her arm away.

            “What’s the matter with you?”

            “Excuse me if I didn’t want to hang around while Richie shoved his tongue down some girl’s throat.”

            “You shouldn’t talk about her like that,” Kate mutters, sipping at her drink.

            “Like what?”  The look he gives her is too conspiratorial for her liking. She shoves him with her free hand.

            “She not just some girl, she’s your brother’s girlfriend.  She’s nice.”

            “Nice?  You’ve barely talked to her.”

            “I – she’s – shut up.”

            Seth laughs.  “Preacher’s daughter has got the hots for the new girl, doesn’t she?”

            “I said _shut up_.”

            “It’s fine, you oughta embrace your – ”

            “If the next words out of your mouth are about to be _inner lesbian_ , I swear to – ” She cuts herself off with a huff.

            “Kate, come on.  It’s 2014.  Nobody’s gonna care if – ”

            “I’m not _gay_ , okay?” she hisses, glancing around to make sure nobody’s listening in on their conversation.  “That’s just – I’m not.”

            “Kate – ”

            “Shove it.”  She storms off without looking back.  Gay?  She’ll show him gay.

            The first boy she comes across who’s on his own is Kyle.  Fine. He’ll do.

            She’s too busy making out with Kyle in his bedroom to know that Santanico’s ex-boyfriend  shows up uninvited.  It’s the huge crashing sound that pulls Kyle’s mouth off of hers and makes them both run downstairs to find out what all the ruckus is about.

            Carlos, apparently, is not super okay with the fact that Santanico’s dating Richie.

            Richie, apparently, is not super okay with being called a f-a-double-g-o-t.

            And Seth, apparently, is not super okay with other people punching his brother in the face.

            The three of them are brawling on Kyle’s living room floor like a bunch of elementary schoolers.  Kyle hops around looking like he wants to pull them off of each other before they break something (else) but too afraid to make a move.

            In the end it’s Santanico who puts a stop to it. She lets out a piercing whistle that has all three boys (and the rest of the party) stopping in the middle of what they’re doing and turning to look at her.  Everyone’s so busy looking at Santanico that no one notices Kate looking at Santanico, which could be a good thing if not for the circumstances.

            She starts shooting out rapidfire Spanish and literally _pulls Carlos up by the ear_ and drags him out of the house.  Richie limps after her and Seth limps after Richie.  Kate follows a moment later, leaving Kyle to deal with the broken dining room chair.

            “You don’t get to decide what I do,” Santanico snarls, inches away from Carlos’s face.  “You don’t get to decide you want me again now that I want someone else. That’s not how this works.” She steps back, her hips rolling with each step.  “Don’t try to call me,” she says, turning her back on him and dragging Richie back into the house behind her.

            Kate watches Carlos leave in what looks to be a pretty expensive car before she remembers Seth’s still outside with her.

            “Some night, huh?” he grins. The stretch of his lip results in a trickle of blood down his chin.

            “You’re bleeding,” Kate says.

            “Yeah, I think Richie accidentally elbowed me in the face.”  He shrugs. “Whatever. It was worth it.”

            “Worth it?  You got into a fight.”

            He looks at her like she’s stupid. “Exactly, princess. What’s a party without a good old-fashioned brawl?”

            Kate rolls her eyes.  “ _Boys_.”

            “That’s right, I forgot, you’re not into boys anymore.”  He grins at her again.

            “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

            “Then enlighten me, princess.”

            Kate just stares at him for a moment before pulling her keys out of her pocket and starting down the street towards her car.

            “Kate – wait – _Kate_ – ”

            She rounds on him.  “It’s none of your _business_ if I like girls or if I like boys or if I like both or neither or what _ever_.  It’s none of your goddamn business, Seth Gecko. So you can either shut up about it and get in the car or you can walk home.”

            She gets in the drivers seat and slams the door shut.  Seth raises his hand against the glare of the headlights when she turns them on.  Kate rolls her window down.  “Well?”

            Seth walks around the side of the car and gets in the passenger’s seat.  “You’re right. It’s none of my business.”

            “Damn right,” she replies, pulling out of her parking spot and driving down the street.  It’s only eleven o’ clock.

            “Except – ”

            “Except _what_?” she snaps.

            He rubs the back of his neck and doesn’t meet her eye.  “Well, _are_ you into guys?”

            “I’m pretty sure I am, otherwise I don’t know what I was doing getting to second base with Kyle Winthrop.”

            “You _what_?”

            Kate smirks.  “That’s right.”

            “ _When_?”

            “Right before you and Richie caused all that ruckus downstairs.”

            “Huh.” He’s quiet a moment and then he says, “You ever consider bisexuality?”

            She nearly crashes into a tree.

  



End file.
